Simplified: The city is in the process of re-launching Neighborhood Connect, an online tool that shows building permits, planning data, rezoning requests under consideration and code enforcement issues. Here's a closer look at the tool and how it can help you be more in-the-know about what's happening around town.

Why it matters

  • Neighborhood Connect allows users to set up alerts, so instead of consistently checking the city website, you can receive emails when, for example, there's a new building permit for housing in your neighborhood.
  • The city's been working on a program to increase transparency since 2014, and, after first launching Neighborhood Connect in early March 2020 (famously a fun time for everyone), they've worked on improvements to make the program as easy as possible and are re-launching it this spring, Senior Planner Jason Bieber said.
  • The site allows users to search specific parts of town – sorting by council districts or neighborhood associations, for example – but folks can also draw their own circles on the map or set up alerts for specific addresses. After an initial set-up, there's no need to go back to the city website. Users can simply rely on email notifications to get the information they're looking for.
"The beauty of it is you have so many options of what you want to see, where you want to see it and the frequency in which you want to be notified," Bieber said.

Tell me more

Using Neighborhood Connect does require setting up an account, but those are free to create and just require an email address.

Right now, the site includes data on building permits, code violations, land use (i.e. zoning changes, annexations, conditional use permits and future land use maps).

  • There's also a way to search for public art like murals and special events like 5Ks or other events that require road closures.
"Our land management system has 5.9 million records," said Holly Carpenter with the city's innovation and technology department. "That's a lot of information in our land management system that we can display now."

Neighborhood Connect also updates instantaneously as new permits, etc. are filed within the city. Carpenter and Bieber both stressed that it's easy to use both for residents and on the back end for city employees.

"We wanted to create something that increases transparency for people," Bieber said. "The other big thing is, you don't want to create something that takes a lot of staff time."

Bieber noted it's also a way to essentially increase the open hours for city planning department staff because folks can get questions answered 24/7.

What happens next?

Looking forward, Bieber said the city will continue to work with other city departments to add more data to Neighborhood Connect. He's hoping to add options in the future to set up notifications for where road projects are happening, where snow alerts are in effect, and more.

"We want to continue to engage departments and have this as the one-stop shop for notifications," Bieber said.